Mrs Mary Anne Rawle
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Born: 1878
Place of birth: Lancashire, England
Occupation: Cotton mill worker
Main Suffrage Society: WFL
Other Societies: WSPU; NUWSS
Arrest Record: Yes
Recorded Entries: 1
Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/page-1/iQHpRb1o9ifdrw?childAssetId=EwED5zlQKYeQNA
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)
Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3213/whats-the-story-of-votes-for-women-in-my-local
https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3203/what-were-the-suffrage-campaigners-fighting-for
https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/resource/3229/the-womens-freedom-league
Family information: Married Francis Rawle, an iron turner, in 1900.
Additional Information: Mary Rawle was one of 400 women textile workers that travelled down to London under the WSPU banner in 1906, to take a deputation to the Prime Minister. Already friends with Hannah Mitchell, she helped her when she began as an WSPU organiser in Oldham. Mary travelled to London again in 1907 on a deputation, and this time was arrested and sentenced to two weeks in Holloway Prison. She was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and received a warm welcome and many good wishes from its local members on her return, including a letter from the secretary of her socialist Sunday school on behalf of the children. Mary left the WSPU to join the more democratic and Labour Party-friendly Women's Freedom League (WFL) when it broke from the WSPU in 1907, becoming a local branch secretary. She commented in 1912, reflecting on a women's march from Edinburgh to London, that 'If there is no other good thing that the women's movement has done', it is 'bringing rich and poor together in one great cause'. In 1913, Mary switched from the WFL to the NUWSS. This was probably because the NUWSS were, by then, working hard to support Labour Party candidates during elections, as the Labour Party had by then committed itself to supporting votes for women in Parliament. Mary's changing choices of suffrage society during the campaign reflect the importance that she placed on Labour Party politics.